Dimensions

Entire length thirteen inches: length of the bill two inches. Mont.

Description

Crown of the head and nape of the neck blackish brown: the rest of the plumage above and below the body rusty brown, spotted with white; the spots on the back guttiform; those beneath disposed longitudinally on each feather, and occupying a larger portion of the ground-colour: vent white: quills and tail black; the latter with a broad white bar at the extremity: irides brown: bill and feet dusky. (Egg). Pale buff-coloured white: long. diam. one inch three lines; trans, diam. ten lines and a half.

Very rare in this country. Has been only observed in three or four instances. One killed near Moyston in Flintshire in October 1753; a second in Kent; a third in Northumberland in the autumn of 1819. Common in some of the mountainous parts of the North of Europe, residing principally in woods. Feeds on seeds and nuts; also on insects. Said to build in the holes of trees, and to lay five or six eggs.